Green Kid Crafts Partners with Hope Community Resources, Selected as Finalist for People & Planet Award

ANCHORAGE, AK — Starting this month, Green Kid Crafts, a mom-owned, earth-friendly kids craft subscription service, will partner with Hope Community Resources, a non-profit organization providing community support to people who experience disabilities, to employ a local team to package their monthly craft activity kits. Green Kid Crafts has also just been selected as one of ten finalists in Green America’s People & Planet Awards, which will open for voting today at www.greenamerica.org/peopleandplanet.

As an environmentalist and a working mother of two young children, Anchorage resident Penny Bauder saw a need for a convenient solution that would allow parents and kids to spend quality time together enjoying activities that spark creativity and cultivate respect and love for the environment. She founded Green Kid Crafts in 2010 to fill this need with fun, creative and earth-friendly craft activity kits, called “Discovery Boxes,” which the company sends out monthly to subscribers and gift recipients.

The business has grown significantly in recent months, which prompted Penny to contact Hope Community Resources, also based in Anchorage, to develop a program that would employ up to 10 individuals with disabilities to package the kits each month on a part time basis.

“Hope Community Resources has been an incredible partner for Green Kid Crafts, allowing us to scale up our business by employing a talented and professional network of people, who just so happen to be disabled,” comments Penny Bauder.

Peggy Robinson, Director of Supported Employment for Hope Community Resources, notes “We are thrilled to be working with Green Kid Crafts to help them bring more of their wonderful craft activity subscriptions to homes across America while providing job opportunities to our community.”

Discovery Boxes packaged by the Hope Community Resources team will begin shipping this month.

As a further testiment to Green Kid Crafts’ socially responsible mission, the company has just been named as a finalist in Green America’s People & Planet Awards, and is the only Alaska-based company represented. The company was selected from hundreds of nominations to be one of the ten finalists, three of which will win a $5,000 prize. The three winners will be determined by public vote at www.greenamerica .org/peopleandplanet – interested parties are encouraged to log on and vote for Green Kid Crafts before Aug. 31. Winners will be announced in September.

“Penny Bauder and her team at Green Kid Crafts can be very proud that out of nearly 250 nominees, Green America’s expert judging panel advanced them into the top-ten voting round,” said Andrew Korfhage, coordinator of the People & Planet Awards. “Only those businesses with the greenest business models and the strongest commitment to community action were chosen to advance. Best of luck to all ten of the nominees.”